The Diamond Certified Preferred Consumer membership was launched last year to give super fans of Diamond Certified extra recognition and benefits. Now, just one year later, I’m very pleased to report that more than 10,000 consumers have signed up! These are consumers who really care about quality and look first to Diamond Certified companies when shopping locally. Reactions from consumers have been quite enthusiastic. “Thank you for adding me to your membership list!” says Michele Pelter of San Mateo. “I heard about Diamond Certified years ago, and I’ve been using Diamond Certified contractors when I have house projects ever since.” Vallejo resident Gabino Lopez goes one step further: “Being a Diamond Certified Preferred Consumer is great! I especially like using the Sticky Note feature on the Diamond Certified website to leave feedback for companies and notes for myself. Thanks again for a great service!”

This 10,000 member milestone is only our first step! As time goes by, we’ll add both new members and new benefits to this popular membership program. Go to www.diamondcertified.info/preferred to sign up for your ALWAYS FREE Diamond Certified Preferred Consumer membership.

Bus Posters Go Live, New Radio Ads Debut: Dave + Chris
When you drive through San Francisco and the East Bay, you’ll see hundreds of these new Diamond Certified bus posters, which are expected to generate more than 10 million Diamond Certified impressions from June to August. It’s always nice when a driver is listening to one of the 3,000+ annual Diamond Certified radio announcements while driving behind a bus with a Diamond Certified poster!

Dave Flemming, the beloved play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants, is also the voice of Diamond Certified during Giants games. In the last few recording sessions, we’ve come up with a fun process to create our spots. Rather than write a script that Dave reads, I go to the studio with him and, with my prompting, he riffs on how he feels about Diamond Certified, our Directory and ratings process, the Diamond Certified Preferred Consumer membership, and more. Just like the way he calls baseball games, I think the new spots have more of a natural, stream-of-consciousness feel to them. They’re doing the job, too—we’ve had a tremendous response to our annual 648 in-game Giants spots, resulting in an increase in both awareness and influence of Diamond Certified in 2012. With that in mind, we had Dave do a couple spots with Chris Bjorklund, our long-time spokesperson who creates all our non-Giants radio spots. To listen to her two appearances as a guest in the broadcast booth, go to info.diamondcertified.info now!

Strong Follow to Digital Workshop = 31 Digital Audits, 12 New Facebook Pages
Our March Digital Workshop series for Diamond Certified company owners was popular, and now the follow-up has made it a true success. Since the workshops, we’ve conducted 31 in-depth digital audits that included the creation of Facebook and Twitter pages for these Diamond Certified companies. We’ve also installed a number of new Diamond Certified Widgets on companies’ websites which provide expert advice and better access to each company’s powerful Diamond Certified Company Report.

DECISION MAKERS: Have Women Changed? You Decide.
I invite you to go to our business owner blog at info.diamondcertified.info and read our latest Learning Series post. It’s titled “Decision Makers: Women Have Changed. Have You? You’ll learn how women have changed and why that’s important to you, how to help women nourish their powerful networks, three easy steps to increase your trust factor, and what matters most and how to know you’re delivering it. After you read the article, we invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. While you’re there, be sure to check out recent posts.

By: Jim Stein, Founder/CEO of American Ratings Corporation, creators of the Diamond Certified Program.

You should follow me on twitter here: twitter.com/jimsteindc